I know this may not get seen but anyone who jumps in on this will basically end up linking their Reddit account name to their real info. Let that sink in.
“Eligible” you note skeptically? Yes. Unfortunately, there are a ton of imposed legal restrictions defining when, who, and how we do this. So while our goal is to give all redditors the same access to stock as institutional investors (why should they have all the fun?), our lawyercats can confirm we must follow specific rules explained below.
My guess is that the current Reddit Inc. investors know that the price per share will sink in the initial public offering. So to squeeze a bit more cash, they're trying to sell some shares to suckers who are emotionally invested into the platform, before the IPO.
If that's correct it's extremely scummy, bait-and-switch behaviour. And damn stupid given that Reddit's CEO Steve "Greedy Pigboy" Huffman was taunting and pissing off powerusers and moderators not too long ago.
Europe has a shitload of requirements that shares must meet in order to be sold to your average private person, including stock info in your native language, and a proper risk assesment.
That also has to have an address somewhere in Europe to operate in it. Do you think Facebook/Amazon/Microsoft dont have offices in the EU? Usually American companies will open European offices in Ireland because they have lower corporation taxes.
Part of me hopes none of them are dumb enough to fall for this. Part of me hopes redditors somehow end up as the majority owners of Reddit and either a) return it to being a good website or b) wreak absolute havoc.
Ding ding ding ding - yes, with the "option" for users to pay them. It's a Trump/Musk/Spez specialty: do whatever the fuq you want, but make it sound nice and people will be lining up just to fall for it.
I would add the joke "What's next - crypto?"... but at this point that is not even funny anymore:-(.